THE MONKEES - "The Christmas Show" (December 25, 1967)

Happy Holidays, and welcome to the beginning of this Christmastide!

The Monkees had a pretty good show that ran two seasons from 1966 to 1968! For the most part, they're pretty stupid, but when you consider they were pumping them out once a week, it's pretty remarkable! This Christmas Show was from season two, episode 15, and was originally broadcast on Christmas day 1967! It looks like they live in "Pebble Beach!"

The story is about a snotty little rich kid named Melvin that the boys get conned into babysitting! Melvin doesn't like Christmas, and he doesn't like having fun! 

Melvin is played by Butch (Eddie Munster) Patrick!

In an effort to entertain Melvin, the boys try different things like going out to chop down their own Christmass Tree, but Mickey gets a poison ivy rash instead.

Peter goes on an unintentional joyride in a big department store on a Moped!

Davy gets to top a tree for the first time in his life, but topples the whole thing over at the same time!

Melvin is not entertained by the Monkees antics one bit, and goes back home where through a series of flashbacks of the way things could have been, he breaks down and sobs, and decides he needs to learn how to have fun!

Merry Christmas!!

Mickey and Davy try one last time to get Melvin to cheer up by going down his chimmney dressed as Santa Claus and an Elf! The timing is right and Melvin learns the joy of happiness!

After all the zaniness comes to a halt, the boys do a lovely accapella version of the mid 1500's Spanish folk song " Ríu Chíu!" The song was arranged by photographer extraordinaire Henry Diltz, Chip (Turtles, Monkees) Douglas, Cyrus Faryar, who was the narrarator on the whack 1967 album, "The Zodiac: Cosmic Sounds," and also was a producer with The Firesign Theatre! That elevates him to the next level in our book, and Jerry Yester of "The Lovin' Spoonful Fame!" All four of them were also members of The Modern Folk Quartet!

I don't really like all this talking about rebuilding arsehole nuclear arsenals!

What this world really needs is:

PEACE and Love!!!! 

Actually my favourite part of the whole show was during the ending credits where they bring the whole crew out on stage!

It seriously looks unscripted, and like........

........They were all having a whole lot of fun!!

It's good to see a large group of people clowning around!!

Oh, Yeah, and don't forget, 

PEACE OUT!!

They even bring out the Monkee Girls from the office!

Merry Christmas everybody!

I hope you're all having just as much fun as these people are, and if not, well, then get with it, you're running out of time!

DRACULA'S CASTLE / Paragon International Pictures - 1969

I recently picked up the 91 minute TV version of Al Adamson's BLOOD OF DRACULA'S CASTLE that he added 7 minutes to and changed the title to simply... DRACULA'S CASTLE! This is the best last minute stocking stuffer I could come up with, with only two days to go before XMAS.

The cast includes John (THE UNEARTHLY) Carradine, Alexander (HORRORS OF SPIDER ISLAND) D'Arcy, Paula (HAND OF DEATH) Raymond, Robert (FORBIDDEN PLANET) Dix and Vicki (HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS) Volante.

Welp, the story starts with our model and photographer couple, during a fun day at Marineland of the Pacific. They get a telegram saying they just inherited a castle in Lancaster!

Back at the ranch, Count Dracula and Countess Townsend are brought their daily glass of life giving blood by their faithful butler, George.

Robert Dix plays nut job Johnny, he has bribed the cemetery guard and is ready to make his escape. Adamson production regular, John 'Bud' Cardos, plays the guard.

But first, the Moon comes out (??) and Johnny turns into a freakin' werewolf and kills the guard!! This is a segment added for the TV version.

Would you buy a stolen car from this psycho? I don't really think it would be a good idea!!

Here's a good, unobstructed view of Dracula's Castle, boy, talk about scary!

Later, Johnny, in a seemingly unrelated scene, changes into a werewolf again, he chases down a woman, and... GETS HER!! You can see how the colors do not match the rest of the movie. Good old low budget fix!

Back at the ranch, all the beans get spilled all over the place, and, our couple is caught up in the insanity in the Dungeon!

This is another scene I believe was added for the TV release, they take Vicki Volante out and tie her to a stake and burn her ass up! A little shocking, but, necessary I guess... John looks a little weird in that garb!

Johnny gets a silver bullet in the heart (almost) and dies... Hooray!!

The Count and Countess are tied to chairs, and, the curtain is drawn and our vampires go poof! Then, a bat comes out of each neck hole in the clothing and they just fly away!

Finally, Mango (great stupid name which reminds me, Eegah!! played Kiwi in our short film, SNAKE BAIT) is the only crazy left. He grabs a mace and chases the couple out to a cliff. For his effort, Mango get a big axe in the back, then our hero lights a match and ... BOOM! Mango had a burrito for breakfast and his pants light up like a lit gas leak, and, he falls off the edge of the cliff! So, Merry Xmas Ever'bloody, we're back with one more treat for you tomorrow...

THE I LOVE LUCY CHRISTMAS SPECIAL (1956)

Well, you can't bring much more joy to the world than this!

The "I Love Lucy" show ran for 181 episodes from 1951 to 1957, and is at least, and probably even more popular today than it was back then!

It's kind of funny when you think about it, but Lucille Ball sounds so natural, while Lucille Arnez, Lucille Ricardo, Lucy Ball, Lucy Arnez, or Lucy Ricardo all sound so weird!

I don't want to know about their private lifes, on the screen they were a great couple!

Co-stars William Frawley and Vivian Vance as Fred and Ethyl Mertz never cease to make me laugh! I don't really know how many episodes they had where just the four of them were basically the entire cast, but they pull it off, time and time again! Most of the time it really wouldn't have mattered if there was a story or not, it was always just fun to watch the four of them interact!

Ricky explains to Little Ricky how Santa can come down the chiminey. Lucy is just as entralled with the story as Little Ricky! The Little Ricky you see is not really their son, but actually an actor named Richard Keith!  In the "Just A Little Weird" department, the real Little Ricky or Desi Arnez Jr., never played himself on any of the Lucy shows, but he did later make 5 appearances as Billy, or Billy Simmons on "The Lucy Show" in the 1960's.

I'm old but this is a Christmas tradition that I am totally unfamilar with! They wait until Little Ricky goes to bed before not only bringing out the presents, but also the Christmas tree! So it wasn't bad enough that Santa had to bring presents to every boy and girl in the world, but he also has to deliver and decorate Christmas trees for each family too?  That's just a little too much for me to believe!

As TV specials have want to do, a good portion of the show is flashbacks to better days like the time when Lucy made a surprise announcement at the club that she was pregnant with Little Ricky!

Fred does an excellent job of trimming up the tree!!

In another flashback, you can hardly recognize Ethyl, Ricky, and Fred as this trio of barbershop quartet singers!

There were no microwaves back then, so you still had to boil the water, so you might have just made real coffee, because it would only take about 5 minutes longer, and is the coffee supposed to put him back to sleep or wake him up, I don't get it!

Ethyl is feeling kind of frisky with the mistletoe!

So they didn't plan it very well, and all four of them show up as Santa Claus on Christmas morning!

Richard Keith started playing drums at the age of two. He went on to be a singer and drummer in a Christian rock band called "David and the Giants!" Check out that giant robot!!

The real Little Ricky, Desi Arnez Jr., was also a drummer in the band Dino, Desi, and Billy, who had the top 40 song in 1965, "I'm A Fool!" The other two members of the band were Dino Martin (Dean Martin's son) and bassist Billy Hinsche. Desi was 12 years old when the band was formed!

As the magic of Christmas tends to go, out of nowhere, a fifth Santa appears, and then disappears just as quick! He stays just long enough to..........

.......get a reaction, and this freakin' great shot of this fantastic foursome!!

The funniest thing about Lucille Ball is that she was so good at being goofy, that we have a tendency to forget about how beautiful she actually was!

And me too!!